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Even the most jaded of musicians and music critics occasionally hear something that brings them to a full stop. The judges on the Dutch show "De Beste Singer-Songwriter" were taken aback by this performer, some to the point of tears. The post Dutch singer-songwriter brings reality show judges to tears [video] appeared first on Holy Kaw!.

Why yes, that is a guy playing a flamethrowing guitar atop a race car. This trailer for the Mad Max reboot looks to be even crazier than the previous three. With spiked-out cars and creepy villains galore, the clip finally addresses the question of just how many explosions can fit into a two-and-a-half minute video. (The answer: not enough.) Mad Max: Fury Road hits theaters on May 15. The people at NASCAR should take pointers. Stop what you're doing, because Gonzo is doing 'The Humpty Dance' Vin Diesel talks about 'Furious 8' before 'Furious 7' is even out Footage shows every angle of…

You're probably wondering why you saw so many transgender people today.Comedy Central announced yesterday that the new host of the Daily Show will be Trevor Noah. The news was greeted from all corners of the `net with ecstatic cries of "literally who?" so our news explainers quickly got to work on journalism's five familiar questions–not just "who?" but also "meet?", "know?", "need?", and "Vox?":Read Full Story

“Reality TV” is one of those phrases that inevitably begs for scare quotes — with its staged scenes and melodramatic confessions, a reality TV show’s relationship with reality can be … complicated. But Morgan Spurlock, director of documentaries like Super Size Me, suggested that the new online video series Connected might live up to “the promise of… Read More

Direct marketing is outbound, measured and designed to pay for itself. So, the catalog you get in the mail, or the Fuller Brush man. The idea was to buy stamps (or some other form of contacting people) and make enough money on average to buy more stamps. Before the internet, direct marketing was on a steady growth path. The science of testing and improving offers and the industrialization of systems that lowered costs meant that more and more organizations were using direct marketing to solicit donations, get votes and sell products and services. One of the key elements that allows direct…

Even the most jaded of musicians and music critics occasionally hear something that brings them to a full stop. The judges on the Dutch show "De Beste Singer-Songwriter" were taken aback by this performer, some to the point of tears. The post Dutch singer-songwriter brings reality show judges to tears [video] appeared first on Holy Kaw!.

Ever heard of the Amen Break? Even if you haven't heard of it, you've heard a variation of it, considering this short clip from the 1969 B-side "Amen, Brother" has been used in at least 1500 songs and the original barely made a dime. The post The 6-second drum solo that launched 1000+ songs [video] appeared first on Holy Kaw!.

Silk is among the most sought after substances in the world of fashion. Did you know that there's organic and non-organic types of silk? There are. And here's how organic silk is made. The post How organic silk is made [video] appeared first on Holy Kaw!.

Have you ever heard the theory that everyone one earth has his or her doppelgänger? This journalist heard it, and the idea really struck her. Watch as she puts out an advertisement and tries to find her double––and succeeds. The post Journalist advertises for her double, finds her [video] appeared first on Holy Kaw!.

Getting yourself motivated is not easy. In fact, depending on the task at hand, it can be the most difficult thing you ever do. Watch this video to learn more about how to boost your will power and simultaneously learn the science behind it. The post The science behind boosting your will power [video] appeared first on Holy Kaw!.

Why yes, that is a guy playing a flamethrowing guitar atop a race car. This trailer for the Mad Max reboot looks to be even crazier than the previous three. With spiked-out cars and creepy villains galore, the clip finally addresses the question of just how many explosions can fit into a two-and-a-half minute video. (The answer: not enough.) Mad Max: Fury Road hits theaters on May 15. The people at NASCAR should take pointers. Stop what you're doing, because Gonzo is doing 'The Humpty Dance' Vin Diesel talks about 'Furious 8' before 'Furious 7' is even out Footage shows every angle of…

A passenger or crewmember on board the doomed Germanwings Flight 9525 reportedly recorded a cellphone video in the final seconds before the crash. German and French media are reporting that investigators found the footage, which was unscathed, at the crash site. German newspaper Bild and French magazine Paris Match describe the video as "chaotic." It's blurry and doesn't show any of the passengers' faces, according to the German paper. However, the audio is reportedly quite clear Here's how Paris Match describes the footage: The scene was so chaotic that it was hard to identify people, but…

Less than 24 hours after securing one of the coolest gigs on TV, Trevor Noah — Jon Stewart's Daily Show successor — found himself in hot water over some jokes he made on Twitter years ago Because Internet See also: 10 Trevor Noah standup clips that prove he deserves the 'Daily Show' gig The content of six jokes made between 2009 and 2014 has been enough for Twitter to accuse Noah of anti-semitism, sexism and fat-shaming But the one label the critics seem to be forgetting? Comedian on Twitter — a distinction that comes with the impossible expectation to be edgy enough to…

In the wake of Ellen Pao's losing verdict in her high-stakes gender bias trial, a group of tech workers pooled together money to place a full-page ad in a Palo Alto newspaper with a simple message: "Thanks Ellen." See also: 5 things we learned about Silicon Valley culture from the Ellen Pao trial The ad, which appeared in Tuesday's edition of the Palo Alto Daily Post, features a minimalist design with a stark black page and the two words in small white font in the center, as USA Today first reported. Read more... More about Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Business, and Ellen Pao

When you're undertaking a website redesign it can be tempting to rush in with the excitement of new possibilities, but it's important to consider the key aspects of a redesign, both aesthetically and from a business perspective. In order for the process to be successful these two must be aligned if the new website is to provide a high return on investment Undertaking a thorough review of your existing website is essential, along with evaluating your content, analytics and calls to action to see how well each is currently performing. If you haven't re-designed in some time, the online social…

You're probably wondering why you saw so many transgender people today.Comedy Central announced yesterday that the new host of the Daily Show will be Trevor Noah. The news was greeted from all corners of the `net with ecstatic cries of "literally who?" so our news explainers quickly got to work on journalism's five familiar questions–not just "who?" but also "meet?", "know?", "need?", and "Vox?":Read Full Story

White space! Infinite scroll! Responsive design! One of the largest sites on the planet finally gets a makeover.Most of the rituals in my life, like drinking fancy tea or starting every day with a cold shower, tend to fizzle out after a few months once my initial enthusiasm fades. But there are a few tendencies that have stuck. As far back as I can remember—and only after looking both ways to make sure whoever my boss happens to be isn't in eyeshot—after checking my email and Twitter, I secretly fire up a tab to check ESPN.Read Full Story

An investigation has revealed Facebook seeds your computer with tracking cookies, no matter what.If you have suspected Facebook is tracking you for ad campaigns, no matter what, all the time: You are right. A report commissioned by Belgium's data protection agency has slammed Facebook for tracking people online, even if they are not logged into Facebook, even if they have opted out of tracking—even if they are not Facebook users at all, The Guardian reported Tuesday. The European Union has been coming after Facebook and Google for alleged anti-privacy practices for a while, but now it…

Working with someone halfway around the world? Circa makes meetings a cinch.It's a series of concentric circles and looks a bit like a broken bull's-eye. Circa, a free iOS app, is the clearest answer to "who can I call in what time zone?" I've ever seen.Read Full Story

J. Christopher Burch, whose "revenge retail" operation C. Wonder failed mightily earlier this year, invests in office products.I've never seen a CEO so eager to do manual labor as Randy Nicolau, chief executive of Poppin. Tall and barrel-chested, with close-cut salt-and-pepper hair, Nicolau jumps to action at the sight of a dismantled Poppin desk lying in pieces on the floor.Read Full Story

“Reality TV” is one of those phrases that inevitably begs for scare quotes — with its staged scenes and melodramatic confessions, a reality TV show’s relationship with reality can be … complicated. But Morgan Spurlock, director of documentaries like Super Size Me, suggested that the new online video series Connected might live up to “the promise of… Read More

I’m a fan of all different sorts of rocks. Rock music. Rock gardens. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But there’s one type of rock that I — and most other drivers, I imagine — hate with a deep, fiery passion: rocks that hit my car’s windshield at 70 mph. Few things so small can wreck your day so suddenly. Everything is going great. The sun is shining. Hell,… Read More

How can more women be encouraged into technology careers? It’s a question that is often put to delegates at tech conferences, but one which continues to be far harder to answer than it is to ask. The problem of gender imbalance in tech is systemic and societal in Western nations. It’s about expectations and aspirations. Read More

The race to provide telecom services to developers of every stripe has a number of large, well-capitalized participants. New and quickly growing among the better-known names is Sinch, a company that was spun out of Rebtel just over 10 months ago. According to the firm, Sinch is now generating revenue at a $60 million run rate. Sinch started with certain advantages that are worth noting. It… Read More

Amid this steady drumbeat of technology breaches and security snafus, venture capitalists have spent roughly $6.5 billion on new technologies to combat this menace, according to CrunchBase data. The latest company to benefit from this deluge of dollars, and the one that addresses the issue of bad actors inside corporate networks most directly, is HyTrust, which closed on $25 million. Read More

Direct marketing is outbound, measured and designed to pay for itself. So, the catalog you get in the mail, or the Fuller Brush man. The idea was to buy stamps (or some other form of contacting people) and make enough money on average to buy more stamps. Before the internet, direct marketing was on a steady growth path. The science of testing and improving offers and the industrialization of systems that lowered costs meant that more and more organizations were using direct marketing to solicit donations, get votes and sell products and services. One of the key elements that allows direct…

Systems under severe stress degrade. While individuals might do extraordinary work while pumped with adrenalin (lifting a car, running through a burning building), panic can decrease the efficacy of a system by 30% or more--often completely destroying it. Compare the typical throughput of a highway during rush hour (when it's filled with seasoned commuters) to a similar road when people are fleeing a natural disaster.... in the first case, the cars naturally keep a safe distance, drivers are sufficiently alert, everyone gets home. In the other, there's a complete standstill. Or consider how…

There's no more important criticism than self criticism. There's no amount of external validation that can undo the constant drone of internal criticism. And negative self talk is hungry for external corroboration. One little voice in the ether that agrees with your internal critic is enough to put you in a tailspin. The remedy for negative self talk, then, is not the search for unanimous praise from the outside world. It's a hopeless journey, and one that destroys the work, because you will water it down in fear of that outside critic that amplifies your internal one. The remedy is accurate…

Perhaps you've decided that the idea of Pick Yourself is sort of a new-age mantra, a promise that everyone is entitled to what they want, right now. What a shortcut it seems to be. A false promise, holding out that illusion that we can get what we want if we just raise our hand. Pick yourself, you win... It's precisely the opposite. If you want to be responsible for making music, make music. If you want to be responsible for writing, speaking, making change happen, go do that. Waiting to get picked is a form of hiding, not realism. No, it’s not always possible for everyone to…

Fast growth comes from overwhelming the smallest possible audience with a product or service that so delights that they insist that their friends and colleagues use it. And hypergrowth is a version of the same thing, except those friends and colleagues quickly become even bigger fans, and tell even more people. Often, we get sidetracked when we forget about "smallest possible." If you make the audience you're initially serving too big, you will dilute the very thing you set out to make, avoid critical mass, and compromise the magic of what you're building. You'll make average stuff for…

With a spray-on reflective coating called Life Paint, Volvo wants to make cyclists more visible to drivers at night. The post An Invisible Spray-On Paint to Keep Bikers Safe at Night appeared first on WIRED.

Metabolic pathways are multi-step endeavors that process one molecule to another, all in the service of cellular health. But not every intermediate waypoint is always seen; they may be consumed quickly as enzymatic reactions progress toward their energy-yielding or food-procuring objectives, rendering potentially useful products invisible to scientists looking for new antibiotics or industrial chemicals. […] The post Assembling a Genome, Piece by Piece appeared first on WIRED.

A new Android app lets you see how much data your apps are using when your phone is idle–and what they do with it. The post Free Tool Shows What Your Apps Are Doing Behind Your Back appeared first on WIRED.

Tidal, the new streaming service backed by hip-hop mogul Jay Z, is being touted as an "artist-owned" endeavor. But is it any good for fans? The post Jay Z’s Tidal Is Great for Artists, But Maybe Not for Fans appeared first on WIRED.

This is a guest contribution from Adam Connell. Have you ever wondered how to gain a significant advantage with social media? Not just in terms of growing a following but growing an engaged following? I have too, and so have countless others. The truth is that you can, and it’s easier than you might think. If you’re serious about growing a more engaged following, you’ll find this post helpful. You’ll learn how to focus your efforts, boost engagement, monitor your progress and ultimately start seeing real growth. Ready? Let’s dive in! 1. Get to know your audience Your audience…

If you’re anything like me, you love words. You love prose, you love language, you love how a perfectly-constructed sentence can say so much more than just letters put in order. If you’re unlike me, however, you love to use lots of words, and write mountains of prose. I know it’s hard not to get carried away, telling everyone everything you’ve ever wanted to say about a subject. Especially online, when blogs are creative outlets, and there are no restraints or word counts. But having been on the reading end of waffly posts (particularly when I haven’t got too…

Recently I shared a simple technique that I use to come up with ideas to write about on my blog – answering a beginner question. While not really rocket science I had a number of readers contact me privately with thank-you messages appreciating the nudge to write that type of post. Today I’d like to suggest another simple technique for coming up with blog post ideas. It’s simple yet is perhaps one of the most powerful types of posts I’ve used on my own blogs many times in the last 12 years. I call these posts the ‘how I do (or did) it’ post. How I did (or…

This is a guest post by Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer. “I’d like to be a writer,” I told my friend one day when he asked what my dream was. “But that’ll never happen.” And I quickly went back to moping around, waiting for my big break. At the time, I was working for a nonprofit as a marketing director, secretly wondering what it might be like to write for a living. Little did I know how close I was to my goal. My was staring me right in the face the whole time. I was just blind to it. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer,” Harriet Tubman once said. “Always remember, you…

This is a guest contribution from Neil. Are you wondering why your expert roundups are not living up to your expectations? Why you are never getting the level of response some other people are getting? After all, the idea behind creating an expert roundup sounds foolproof on paper. Get eminent experts to answer a question for you. Gather the responses and publish the ultimate answer to that question. Get your experts to share the content and then leverage their audience to get a viral post. There is no way you can fail! But the reality is a bit different. My first expert roundup (January,…

Most of us keep some flashlights and candles around for when the power goes out, which works well enough. If you’d prefer something a little more automated, Make shows off how to build your own lighting system that turns out when the power goes out. Read more...

Plans to eat healthy can fly out the window when you step into a grocery store. Maybe you add junk food to your cart full of vegetables. Or maybe you believe the hype that a food is healthy , when it's really not the best choice. Here are some of the traps that food marketers use against you.Read more...

Several times a year a group of executives from startups do a six-minute demo of their products to an audience of venture capitalists, analysts, and journalists. This name of the event is, logically, DEMO. It’s a great occasion—especially if you understand the dance that’s going on: Entrepreneurs acting as if they don’t need venture capital, and venture capitalists acting as if they don’t need entrepreneurs. (This is like acting prudish in a brothel.) This post is for anyone who has to give a good demo, whether at DEMO or anywhere else. Demoing is an essential skill to launch a…

Although this may bite me in the butt someday if it’s booked solid, I’d like to tell you about the Hyatt Place in Austin, Texas. I will stay at this hotel every time I go to SXSW. The hotel is one block from the Austin Convention Center. There is a breakfast buffet with no waiting. There are restaurants within one hundred yards that fulfill my four main food groups: steak, Thai, sushi, and fried chicken. If these don’t take care of you, there’s a boutique market across the street for snacks. The hotel bar also sells food 24-hours per day. The Wifi is fast—maybe…

I’ve joined the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. This entity is the parent organization of all the “Wiki” projects such as Wikipedia and other free-knowledge projects. The activities of the Wikimedia Foundation represent one of the most important projects in the history of civilization. Having helped democratize computing with Apple and currently helping to democratize design with Canva, how could I resist the opportunity to democratize knowledge with Wikimedia? The Wikimedia Board of trustees has ten members. Can it get much cooler than helping Wikimedia…

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are already working for a big company. Like external entrepreneurs, they dream of creating innovative products. They, too, must prototype, position, pitch, bootstrap, recruit, fund, partner, sell, and support. The purpose of this minichapter is to explain how to do all this when you’re employed by a large business. Ironically, many entrepreneurs envy the employees of major companies—they think that these lucky souls have humongous financial resources, large sales forces, fully equipped labs, scalable factories, and established brands, plus medical and dental…

Apple and HBO recently inked a deal that will see Apple becoming the exclusive launch partner for HBO's upcoming "HBO Now" web-based streaming service, and in an interview with CNBC, HBO CEO Richard Plepler explained why the company chose to partner Apple. According to Plepler, the main reason why HBO opted to team up with Apple was due to the success of its existing cable-based service, HBO GO. 60 percent of HBO GO traffic comes from Apple devices, including the Apple TV, Macs, and the iPhone and the iPad. HBO GO apps have been available on iOS devices since 2011 and the service has been…

Apple announced on Tuesday that all registered developers can now submit Apple Watch app submissions based on WatchKit for approval on the App Store. A number of popular apps have already been updated with Apple Watch support on the App Store over the past week, and the approval process is now extended to all members of Apple's Developer Program. Apple has updated its WatchKit website with details on how developers can optimize the design and development of their Apple Watch apps, including the app's name, description, icon, screenshots, keywords, version number and build number. Apple Watch…

Apple Pay growth is being stymied by issues people are experiencing at checkout, including cashiers unfamiliar with the service and problems getting payment terminals to work. According to a new study conducted by Phoenix Marketing International (via Bloomberg) in February, these ongoing problems are resulting in fewer repeat usage attempts and missed payment opportunities. Two out of three iPhone buyers surveyed linked a credit card to their iPhones to enable Apple Pay, and 88 percent of those used the service once in the past four months. On average, Apple Pay users made 2.6 in-store…

Microsoft on Tuesday announced the Surface 3 tablet with Windows 8.1, available in May for a starting price of $499. The latest iPad competitor is designed to be a complete laptop replacement, running full Windows, including desktop applications, and delivering all-day battery life. Surface 3 also includes a quad-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, a significant shift from ARM processors used in previous models. Surface 3 comes with 64GB storage and 2GB of RAM for $499, while a 128GB option with 4GB of RAM costs $599. Both Wi-Fi only and 4G LTE models are available. The tablet also…

The ongoing conflict between Apple and Ericsson escalated this afternoon as the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) agreed to launch an investigation into claims that Apple infringed on as many as 41 of Ericsson's cellular technology patents with its iPad and iPhone devices, reports PCWorld. Apple and Ericsson first clashed in January, after the expiration of a 2008 licensing agreement between the two companies. Despite two years of negotiations, the companies failed to establish a new agreement that would let Apple use Ericsson's cellular technology patents. Apple filed a…

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to sit down with my friends Darren Rowse and Brian Clark. The last time the three of us sat quietly was in 2008 or 2009 when we launched the Third Tribe group (ah, memories). I joked that I wanted to bring that back and we could call it Sixth Tribe. You know, Third Tribe 2.0. Alas. Content Will Never Be King The conversation was brief, fun, and sprinkled with some melancholy about the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Darren is thriving with his Problogger events and his Digital Photography School. Brian is running Copyblogger Media,…

With well over a billion users, Facebook must easily rank as most people’s “where I see interesting stories and click” tool of choice. Sure, us nerds might point to Feedly or Flipboard, but that’s not “most people.” That’s the enlightened. Some of us get our favorite sites to our inbox. But that’s more rare than not. What seems most true, however, is that hardly anyone stops by someone’s actual blog any more (or say “site” in case you bristle at the word “blog.”) If people aren’t visiting blogs directly any…

I’m going to Social Media Marketing World in San Diego next Tuesday through Thursday. I’m doing two OFFICIAL things that I’ll stop explaining because I keep getting it wrong. Beyond that, most of my time is my own (I’ve got two other formal obligations and a few friend obligations). I thought I’d write out what my hopes are for the event, in case you and I have some shared interests we should cover. First and Foremost I’m definitely there to meet and connect. If you SEE me somewhere and find some dumb reason NOT to connect with me, stop it. Go the hell up…

This is the Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670. It’s about the size of a Macbook Air, kinda. It runs the Google Chrome OS, which means it’s pretty much like a browser-only deal. All the apps you use are web-based. And this device helped me make $28,000 in ten days. Could a Chromebook Make You More Money? I suspect you already know the real answer to how this worked. This Chromebook isn’t the most powerful computer in the universe. If you have a lot of tabs open, it doesn’t work well. So, I don’t have many tabs open. (hint one) Continue ReadingThe post How a $200…

I can count on one hand the number of times that something I’ve tried to sell has been well-received by the people I serve. You know how some kids are a late bloomer? That’s me with most of the things I sell. People buy them years later sometimes. But this time, I really struck gold. How We Write Our Sales Letter Sequence I learned a lot while putting together the now-defunct webinar version of Online Course Maker. (Let me reiterate: the WEBINAR VERSION IS GONE). First, I learned that there’s such a thing as too much information for a format. I tried to cram way too much…

Ever throw your hands up in frustration when it comes time to look for an image for your latest blog post? Let’s start with the bad news: a terrible stock photo is worse than no photo at all. The good news? There are more free stock photos available now than ever before! But you have to know where to look. And you need to understand a little about image licensing, like the difference between free, royalty-free, and Creative Commons license terms. Or else that photo you use could land you in legal trouble. In this episode of Hit Publish, host Pamela Wilson shares the best image tips from…

Today’s guest on Hack the Entrepreneur is one of the nicest people host Jon Nastor has ever met, as well as a serial online entrepreneur. Pat Flynn began his online journey back in 2008, after getting laid off from his job as an architect, and he has not looked back since. He is now the host of the wildly successful Smart Passive Income podcast, as well as Ask Pat … and more recently the 1-Day Business breakthrough podcast with Chris Ducker. He has also started creating and selling software, he speaks around the world, has written a book, and is currently in the middle of his next…

If you summarized every single book and article written on writing for the web, you’d get the three words I’m about to tell you. Yet, no one — not even the experts, authors, or pundits — has, to my knowledge, ever consolidated all this knowledge into one simple, sticky process. Write with these three words in mind, and anything you publish on the web will rivet attention, stoke desire, and get action. In this 9-minute episode of Rough Draft with Demian Farnworth, you’ll discover: A truly inspirational article by a pioneering punk legend The danger of being clever…

Simply put, if you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing. In fact, if you’re whipping up blog posts and infographics without business objectives, you’re basically partaking in a very expensive version of arts and crafts. Your job as a content marketer is to show your boss the money — not traffic, not links — mon-naay. Let’s talk about how to get started effectively measuring your content marketing efforts. Measurement separates digital marketing from traditional advertising As a native Philadelphian (I live in Brooklyn now), I know a little too much…

The Early Bird Price for Authority Rainmaker ends today, so I had a message planned for today making one final case for why you should join us in Denver, Colorado this May. But then I read what Raubi wrote on Friday about how much last year’s event accelerated her career. The quick version: She came to Denver questioning why she was even in the room; she left prepared to take a leap of faith and bet on herself. So she did. Now she runs her own company. She got clarity, so she got moving. (By the way, we didn’t ask Raubi to write about her experience. She wanted to share her…

Fantastical 2, HoudaSpot 4, GoodTask 2, and moreIn this week’s roundup of new Mac apps, you’ll find a brand new version of Fantastical, a program for plastering your desktop with beautiful photography, and even a way to keep your secrets secure in plain sight.Covered 1.3Rob Heague’s Covered scours the iTunes store for high-quality cover art for you to use within your own media library.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

I signed up for a trial subscription to Tidal last week, and decided to stay with the service after a few days of streaming to my desktop speakers and to my Sonos system (Spotify on Sonos sucks). I don’t consider myself an audiophile—I don’t even own a turntable—but I am passionate about audio quality, and Tidal streams in the same format that I use to rip the CDs that I purchase.Yeah, I still buy CDs. But I can buy fewer than two per month for the price of a Tidal subscription that lets me discover as much new music as I have time to listen to.I respect what Jay-Z is trying to…

French company Infinit has released Android and iOS applications for free file-sharing that promise improved transmission speeds over cloud-based services. High-resolution smartphone cameras that can shoot 4K videos means that such a service is needed on mobile devices, Infinit said in a blog post on Tuesday. There are already apps for Mac OS and Windows. All the apps are free and there is no limit on file sizes or types that can be transferred. There are two ways to share files. Recipients who have the one of the apps installed get a notification they have to accept. It’s also possible to…

People love choice, right? Give the option between not having choice and having choice, one would always choose choice, right? Because it’s always better to be able to choose between 70 crappy things than get one good one. Hey, wait a minute... Writing for the Forbes contributor network and monkey grooming service, Brooke Crothers asks ”Windows 10 or OS X: Can Hardware Make the Difference?” (tip o’ the antlers to Rajesh) Yes! Oh, wait, he means the other way around. Then, no. NO! Would you switch from Mac to Windows to get access to “better” hardware?To read this article in full…

AT&T promised to bring gigabit broadband to Silicon Valley, and more than seven months later it has finally delivered. The carrier recently announced U-Verse with GigaPower is now available in parts of Cupertino, California—albeit for a steep price premium compared to the cost of the GigaPower service in cities with gigabit Internet competition. GigaPower arrives ahead of Google Fiber, which is available in eight markets across the U.S., but has not yet come to the heart of America’s tech industry. Cupertino is best known as Apple’s home base, but it’s also just down the road…

Smart “responsive” workflows, effective responsive design/UX patterns and powerful front-end techniques — if you need a good book on smart responsive design, our brand new Smashing Book 5 is just what you need. Neatly packed in a gorgeous hardcover, it covers time-saving, practical techniques for crafting fast, maintainable and scalable responsive websites. 498 pages. Hardcover/eBook. Pre-order the book and save 25% today.1 2 $29 $39 Get the book3Printed, gorgeous hardcover.Save 25% today.4 Free shipping only today. About The Book Responsive design is a default these days, but…

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for seven years now1, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for April 2015. Both…

In a previous article1 I introduced mobile back end as a service (MBaaS) which aims at giving app developers the ability to create seamlessly new feature-complete cross-platform native and web applications. The next step is implementing a complete demo application using those ideas. Through this real working application, you will be able to see the areas in which MBaaS provides value. This first part will walk you through a messaging application demo powered by the Kinvey application and explore how to leverage user management, file storage and the data store. The second part will complete…

It’s just like that for your product, too: people rely on our products to work. Bugs erode trust, which in turn loses customers. So when we began updating Foundation, a responsive CSS framework, we wanted to ensure everything worked. Thoroughly. We know that many people rely on our software for their work, and maintaining that trust is paramount. In this article you’ll learn our methodology for testing responsively, not just on a case by case, page-from-PSD comp. See, we’ve developed a certain system to make sure that nothing’s broken at launch on different devices.

Back in 2013, Google officially announced1 that it would begin to penalize websites that provide a faulty user experience on mobile devices. Specific examples included redirecting inner URLs to a home page when viewed in a mobile version of a website, as well as showing 404 errors to people attempting to access pages on mobile. Toward the end of 2014, a Google spokesperson hinted that the mobile user experience would become a ranking factor2. In January 2015, a number of website owners received messages warning about mobile usability issues on their websites, linking to a section of Webmaster…

Hi Gang: If you’re into travel photography (or just want to learn some interesting things about one of the most amazing places on this planet), then you’re invited to join us for a FREE travel photography Webcast this Thursday night at 7pm called “Unpacking Dubai.”RC and Brad (who were both in Dubai this month) will be joining me, plus we’ll be giving away some goodies, including a big beautiful print from my trip. We’ll be taking your questions live on the air, and sharing everything from photography tips and techniques to the post processing side of it…

Greetings from Holland (well, greetings from 33,000 feet above Holland — I’m on my way back from speaking at the Professional Imaging show in Nijkerk – awesome experience — more on that coming soon).OK, let’s talk about Periscope, a FREE app from Twitter (for IOS only at this point), that lets you broadcast live from anywhere you have a connection to the Internet and people can chat with you live (type questions), and visually experience exactly what you’re seeing. It is one of the most fun social media experiences I’ve had. As my buddy Frank Doorhof…

Hi gang: Greetings from here in The Netherlands Got here yesterday and spent the day with my buddy, fashion photographer, lighting wizard, and awesome instructor, Frank Doorhof (that’s a copy of the Czech translation of Frank’s bestselling “Mastering The Model Shoot” I saw displayed when touring Frank’s cool new studios in a town outside Amsterdam).We went to go shooting yesterday, but by the time I took my “jetlag avoidance nap” the rain had moved in, so we didn’t get any shooting done, but today we’ve got permission for what could…

Moose Peterson’s Safari Adventure Moose goes on safari! With a career studying and photographing wildlife for over three decades, Moose has his first African safari and you’ve got a front row seat. Join Moose as he encounters the wide array of wildlife that calls the Mala Mala Game Reserve in South Africa home. Moose shares his take on the gear he brought along with his tips and techniques for capturing images that help tell the story of your trip.KelbyOne Live Want to learn from Scott Kelby or Joel Grimes live in person? Check out these seminar tour dates to see if they’re…

NEW FRONTIERSAll photographers have familiar subject matter. Maybe you are wedding photographer, a sports shooter or a headshot specialist. You cover similar events and subjects year after year. The natural progression is you start asking yourself, ‘is there a different way to photograph this familiar subject?’ Sometimes unique perspectives or new locations prompt spikes in creativity and original ideas. Sometimes new lighting or post processing creates fresh looks. And other times new gear comes along that lets you realize new possibilities.I’ve been photographing adventure sports for…

Photographing deserts usually delivers very dramatic and beautiful landscape images. But it can also be challenging to prevent your photos from appearing flat and uninteresting, on top of the harsh conditions which can cause havoc with your camera. Here are a few tips on how you can improve your travel photography of desert photos: Catch the right light It’s no secret that photographing early morning or late afternoon provides a wonderfully soft light which can make any image look much more interesting. This can be even more vital in the desert where the low angle of the sun can really…

The thing studio product photographers hate the most is when undesirable reflections show up in their images. There are many ways to control these and I’ve got one that you can easily build at home. It’s a DIY project using the Savage Translum material. What you’ll be creating is a rollable sheet of Translum with a hole in the middle for your camera lens. That will enable you to set it between the object you’re photographing and the camera which will eliminate the big direct reflections you get by using a softbox pointed straight on the subject. What is Savage Translum material?

Sometimes an expression can cut you like a knife. One of the most fascinating things about street photography is that it can be so hard to pinpoint the reasons why one photograph works and another does not. A good street photograph can be sharp or it can be blurry; it can be in contrasty light or in soft and even light; it can be an energetic scene with layers of people or it can be a quiet shot with nobody in it. It gets further complicated when you start to think about the ideas, moods, and feelings that your images suggest. Despite this lack of certainty, I believe there are two…

If you have ever wondered how to improve your outdoor portraits. Turn off your Smartphone, shuffle your schedule, and make sure you read every single word on this page. Because outdoor portrait lighting secrets will finally be revealed. Below is an example of one of my typical on-location lighting setups. It consists of a studio strobe with a battery pack and a Westcott 35″ Deep Parabolic Zeppelin modifier. I am guessing you have most likely stumbled upon this article because you are searching for a way to improve your outdoor portraits. If you would like to capture perfectly exposed…

While a satisfied client is the fuel for further sales and word of mouth, an excited client is the jet engine for your marketing. Unfortunately, many photographers don’t know how to turn regular customers into fans. In this article you’ll find five simple, time-proven techniques of impressing your photography clients and building a long-lasting relationship from an ordinary photo shoot. 1. Be Professional Image by niekverlaan You should portray a professional image of yourself right from the beginning. This doesn’t necessarily involve spending hundreds of dollars on premium graphic…

You may have noticed a few Apple Watch-friendly iOS apps trickle out, but brace yourself: you're about to face a torrent of them. Apple has opened up WatchKit app submissions to all developers (not just the handful of early partners from before), so ...

LG's new mobile VR headset -- which is basically just a plastic version of Google's cardboard VR viewer -- is finally hitting American shores. The company just announced that it'll be throwing in a free headset, simply called the VR for G3, with the ...

Flickr has long had ways to let others use and tweak your photos, but if you want to give up your copyright altogether? You can now do just that. In the wake of Elon Musk releasing SpaceX's photos to public domain, Flickr has added options for public...

GoPro doesn't make square, cube-like cameras, but if it did, the picture (after the break) is probably what they'd look like. The image comes from a patent granted to GoPro today. The protection covers a "Camera housing for a square-profile camera," ...

Sid Meier scares the crap out of me. I'm deeply familiar with the famed strategy game creator's resume -- from the history-spanning Civilization series to the high seas simulations in Sid Meier's Pirates! -- but I've only ever played one of his games...

I have been photographing dancers for several years now as part of my affiliation with the local arts council. The results were catch-as-catch-can, mostly because of the limitations of flash recycle time, timing, and my not really knowing what to expect from them nor when to expect it. But a little trick I tried last week changed everything. Read more »

For those of you following along with The Traveling Photographer series, Lynda has just posted the New York City episode.This is a city I have visited many times, so we tried to distill this visit down to a small collection of very cool photo experiences. I hope you like it.Lastly, NYC completes the series—for now, anyway. Whether or not it continues will be determined solely by how many views it gets. So thanks in advance for your support.-DH

For much of 2014, I have been on the road for Lynda.com, producing the series, The Traveling Photographer. The latest episode, on London, has just posted. London is an amazing city, and I think this episode is our best to date.Hard to believe it, but we have now logged over 50,000 miles on this journey. In addition to Hong Kong, Dubai, Paris and London, we have just finished filming the New York City segment, which will be published soon. For more information about the entire series, see this earlier post.

Of all of the wonderful things that have happened since I began writing Strobist eight years ago, certainly the best is the steady parade of creative people I have met as a result. And few are more talented (or insan motivated) than London-based photographer Drew Gardner.We grew up in the same era, both working for newspapers in our respective cities. We left the papers and graduated to second careers. Drew moved onto a mix of editorial, commercial and art photography. And I, well, sometimes I'm not sure how exactly to describe what it is that I do.So it was with equal parts curiosity and…

Paris, the latest installment in The Traveling Photographer series, has just posted to Lynda.com. Photographed this past May, the hour-long episode includes lots of practical, real-world advice for anyone who may be considering traveling to Paris with their camera. In addition to all of the city-specific travel advice, much of the episode explains how to make the most of your time there as a photographer. There are segments on where to go to get the best cityscapes, street shooting and even a section on shooting in Paris through a specially adapted toy camera lens.If a trip to Paris is in…

Microsoft has announced the latest model in its Surface line of tablets, the Surface 3. The big news here is that, unlike its predecessors which were running Windows RT, the new model comes with a full version of Windows 8.1. This means, like on the more expensive Surface Pro models, you can install and run any Windows application including Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, making the Surface 3 a real alternative to a conventional PC. Read more

The Sony Alpha 7 II provides a number of features and ergonomic enhancements over its predecessor, but its standout feature is the 5-axis image stabilization system surrounding its 24.3MP full-frame CMOS sensor. Sony also claims improvements to the camera's hybrid AF system, and it also sports a redesigned grip. Find out all about the a7 II's added features and see what difference they make. Read review

Yale has announced the acquisition of the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection, which is comprised of more than 73,000 items including portraits of Abraham Lincoln. The collection was assembled by Frederick Hill Meserve and his daughter Dorothy Meserve, and serves to document American history spanning from the Civil War up to the end of the 19th century. Read more

Polaroid camera repair and maintenance company Mint has introduced its own instant camera called the Mint Instantflex TL70. Fitted with a 65.4mm lens the camera offers aperture settings of f/5.6, f/8, f/16 and f/32 with an additional setting called f/bokeh – which creates a 5-pointed star shaped aperture. The Instantflex also features a flip-up flash unit housed above the viewing lens. Read more

In many users' pockets consumer-level digital compact cameras have been replaced by smartphones. The cameras of the latter don't usually have zoom lenses or xenon flashes but image sensor technology has been rapidly improving, making smartphones important photographic tools for many. We've made a list in no particular order our current favorite smartphone cameras for those who are looking to buy their first smartphone or upgrade their current device. Read more

Hi Gang: First, sorry for missing yesterday’s post — I was flying back from Amsterdam with an early flight, and I just kinda ran out of time. Plus, with all the weed and stuff over there…(just kidding, just a joke). Anyway, today we’re looking at going back and forth between Lightroom and Photoshop and, if you do that, I’m sure you want consistency in your color between the two programs, right? Right! That’s why you might want to change your color space in Photoshop to match Lightroom’s default color space of ProPhoto RGB. You do this under Photoshop’s…

Hey guys, RC here. Scott is out in Amsterdam for the Professional Imaging conference in Amsterdam. That won’t stop us from showing you the latest episode of The Lightroom Show! We are so glad you guys are digging it! Remember, if you have any questions that we can solve for you – we’d love to hear them. Keep sending them along. The featured photographer for this show is Adrian Sommeling. Check out his site at http://adriansommeling.com/ ! Have a great weekend! The post “The Lightroom Show” Episode #7 with Scott & RC is here! appeared first on Lightroom…

Original Image One of the great things about the adjustment tools is that you can add color to the affect. Heck it could be the only setting you applied to that tool. I rely heavily on Photoshop’s color picker/eyedropper to help me choose colors since I have been known to have some color issues. But if you use a track pad or tablet device such as a Wacom Intous in Lightroom and you click on the color swatch to choose a color… as soon as you move your mouse out of the color palette, and try to sample a color in the image… the cursor changes to a regular one and you…

Hi everybody — to help shake off yesterday’s “No Comment Monday” (save for a last-minute comment or two by Lyle) today I’m giving away TEN signed print copies of my book, “Photoshop for Lightroom Users.” To enter, just leave me a comment here, and you’re entered. I’ll pick 10 winners on Friday end of day; I’ll sign each one and get ‘em out to you no matter where you are in the world. Good luck everybody! Here’s a video (below) that explains the book (that way, at least you’ll know what you might win). Good luck everybody! (Note: in case you…

Portland-based company Grovemade is known for its range of attractive wood accessories designed for the iPad and the iPhone, which it has been producing for several years now. Grovemade recently invited MacRumors to go hands-on with two of its newest products for the iPhone 6 Plus, and we jumped at the chance because Grovemade products have been popular with our readers in the past. We checked out the Maple and Leather iPhone Case and the matching Maple iPhone Dock. Read on to see what we thought. Maple & Leather iPhone Case All of Grovemade's products are crafted by hand and the company's…

After announcing the Apple Watch in September of 2014, launch time has finally arrived. Apple in March announced that pre-orders for the Apple Watch will begin on April 10, with an official launch taking place on April 24. Apple product lines for its iOS devices and Macs are relatively simple, consisting of a few models from which to choose. Picking an Apple Watch is a little more complicated, with the different models, a couple of watch sizes, and multiple band options. The prices start at $349 and go all the way up to $17,000 -- a very wide range. This guide walks you through the…

Adonit on Tuesday announced a new Jot Script Evernote Edition, a Bluetooth-enabled note-taking stylus for iPad that features a slimmer build, longer-lasting rechargeable battery and improved precision and app integration. The stylus has a better grip, upgraded Pixelpoint tip and improved palm rejection for a more precise experience with some of the best note-taking apps. Specifically, the stylus is capable of faster stroke tracking, smoother line rendering, and better tip-to-line accuracy. It has a built-in USB lithium-ion rechargeable battery that delivers up to 20 hours of uninterrupted…

The iOS app for Audiobooks.com today received an update to overhaul the browsing experience, dedicated audio player, and even allow full integration with CarPlay "and select in-car infotainment systems", to allow its users to listen to audiobooks while driving. The company didn't release much information on the update outside of the release notes, so there isn't any word yet on how easy and fluid the experience is when pairing with CarPlay. It does, however, appear to be the first dedicated audiobook app to announce compatibility with Apple's CarPlay system. Elsewhere in the update,…

After we published our review of the ClamCase Pro keyboard for the iPad Air 2, some of our readers suggested that we take a look at other iPad keyboards available on the market. We decided to take MacRumors readers up on that suggestion, and over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at several keyboards designed for Apple's newest tablet, the iPad Air 2. We're kicking things off with a review of the BrydgeAir keyboard, which is able to work with both the original iPad Air and the iPad Air 2. Much like the ClamCase Pro we previously looked at, the all-aluminum BrydgeAir is designed to turn the…

Controversial design for 7132 Tower hotel will see luxury spa the size of the Empire State Building rise over the alpine community of ValsTags: Luxury hotelsswiss alpsEuropean alpsspasarchitecturehotel design